Hypochlorite components are known in the art to serve both as a strong oxidiser which assist in the chemical degradation, break-up and removal of stains and soils and also as an effective disinfectant. This dual role of hypochlorite has contributed to the increased use of said component in the formulation of cleaning compositions.
Hypochlorite compatible surfactants, such as amine oxide and/or anionic sulphate surfactants, are also known to contribute to the cleaning performance of cleaning compositions. However, a problem encountered with the use of said surfactant in cleaning compositions is the foaming property of the surfactants which renders the rinsing step more difficult.
One solution would be to incorporate silicone components known as suds suppressor components, and disclosure of such silicone suds suppressing components may be found in EP-A-0,046,342. However, although effective in suppressing the formation of suds, silicone components are incompatible with hypochlorite which thus, results in a decrease of the suds suppressing performance of the silicone component.
Accordingly, the formulator of a cleaning composition is faced with the challenge of formulating a cleaning composition which exhibits low-foaming properties.
The Applicant has now surprisingly found that the use of a capped nonionic ethoxylated surfactant in a cleaning composition comprising a hypochlorite bleaching component and hypochlorite compatible surfactants fulfills such a need. Such nonionic surfactants are known as low-foaming surfactants, but the Applicant has now found that their use further provides a reduction of the foaming due to other hypochlorite compatible surfactants.